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Man Causes Big Stink on Plane (Literally) — Causes Emergency Landing

May 31, 2018
by
Million Mile Secrets Million Mile Secrets

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Scott: The oxygen masks could not come down fast enough.

An Entire Flight Was Taken Down by One Person’s Body Odor. If Only He Had Washed Under His Wings

Several major news outlets are reporting an airline full of folks on vacation heading to the Spanish island of Gran Canaria were forced to endure an emergency landing caused by a man who smelled like he hadn’t bathed for several weeks.

The “olfactory disturbance” sickened passengers. Customers began involuntarily vomiting after the plane took off from Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands. Others fainted.

Fortunately, food is not complimentary on the low-cost airline, or it would have been made worse.

The Express reports that Belgian passenger Piet van Haut described the smell of the man as “unbearable.” And continued, “It was like he hadn’t washed himself for several weeks. Several passengers got sick and had to puke.”

While few are quick to shower the Transavia flight attendants with praise, they reportedly tried to pull the putrid passenger into the toilet, where such smells are more tolerated. But then the pilots turned up the nose to divert the flight.

They landed in the Portuguese city of Faro where the egregiously-scented man was escorted into a bus.

Transavia, a budget airline, officially announced the emergency landing was due to “medical reasons.”

My Take

I do hope the man gets the medical or psychological help he needs. However… the customer in question did not board the airplane then suddenly develop a case of the stinkies.

Airport staff need to be empowered and trained to deal with these situations. This is not the first very smelly person to victimize others on a flight. While we all want to be sensitive to those who have special needs, we must use common sense when there is no escape for other passengers.

There are people who need serious psychiatric help who probably should not be on airplanes without a medical helper because they’ll endanger other passengers. And this is exactly one of those cases. When a person smells so awful that others are vomiting and passing out, it’s not in anyone’s best interest to allow that person to fly. For causing such pain to those onboard, the nausea-inducing gentleman likely feels as bad as he smells. This all could have been prevented.

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Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)

2comments

Someone should have stopped him long before he got on the plane. Also, people who wear any perfume or cologne/aftershave should be aware that those smells can be over powering and offensive. No one should be able to smell your perfume/cologne unless they have their nose in your neck!!

Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)